Manila, Philippines β On August 21, , Gillian Jane Perez was in transit to China for a three-week study trip to learn about socialism when a bomb exploded at a political rally being held by an opposition party in Manila.
The incident, which left nine people dead, set in motion a sequence of events that changed not only the trajectory of her life but the history of the Philippines. Then-Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos used what became known as the Plaza Miranda bombing as a pretext to crack down on activists and critics and order raids on opposition groups. Marcos blamed the bombing on the communists and accused Perez and her group of masterminding the attack. An arrest warrant awaited the year-old if she were to return to the Philippines.
She has requested Al Jazeera to use a pseudonym citing security concerns if she returns to the Philippines. How could we, student leaders so far away, instigate something like that? Although outlawed in , communist fighters played a key role in the guerrilla fight against Japanese occupation, as they did in other parts of Southeast Asia. After World War II, the communists gradually lost their influence but they continued to push for social reforms.
Then in , the CPP re-emerged with a commitment to Maoist ideals and energised with socialist zeal in the same decade that Marcos rose to power. As veteran political scientist Professor Bobby Tuazon explains, young people and other disenfranchised groups continued to find socialist ideas attractive. As the would-be strongman started to clamp down on dissent, the party became a convenient foil for Marcos. The young activists who were calling for social reforms became the perfect bogeymen as he sought to justify his hold on power.
Against the backdrop of a deepening Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, anti-communist hysteria was rampant. When he was a senator, he supported talks between the Philippine government and the communist rebels. While supporting the Viet Cong against the Americans in Vietnam, at home it was struggling with the tumult caused by the Cultural Revolution. They were able to return to the country after Marcos was removed by a popular revolt in Perez remembers last talking with Cruz as they both claimed compensation through the Philippines Human Rights Claims Board for damages resulting from their banishment or exile.
